What, you missed the Chicago teachers strike where they used their students as props?
You missed the demonstrations in AZ and CA where the teachers took their students to the protests? Seriously? you missed that?

with the amount of money the US spends on student education they should be first in everything... but they are only first in spending and teacher strikes.

So you are damn right I blame the teachers and those pulling their strings.

--- Want any of my Constitutional rights?, ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕI come from a time and a place where I judge people by the content of their character; I don't give a damn if you are tall or short; gay or straight; Jew or Gentile; White, Black, Brown or Green; Conservative or Liberal. -- Note to mods: if you are going to infract me have the decency to post the reason, and expect to hold everyone else to the same standard.

My point is that if you want to help poor people, I'm all ears, but 74 years of minimum wage increases have done NOTHING for poor people in the long term aside from cause ridiculous rises in inflation rates.

Why can't we just call it a failed experiment and move on to solutions that might actually work? Like the Negative Income Tax!

My point is that if you want to help poor people, I'm all ears, but 74 years of minimum wage increases have done NOTHING for poor people in the long term aside from cause ridiculous rises in inflation rates.

Inflation's low and the only way we've been able to pretend poverty is the same it's always been is by ignoring levels of absolute income.

Sure you are. There are lots of factors for inflation. There are lots of factors for purchasing power. Lots of factors for poverty etc etc etc. If you want to say the minimum wage has failed because its a bad policy you need to account for all the factors involved in povery and inflation.

Inflation is currently low. Look at what happened historically, though.

Relative to what? Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low. It's a lot more stable than it was before minimum wage though. I'm not at all suggesting that minimum wage stabilizes inflation, I think there's very little causal relationship between them.

Relative to what? Sometimes it's high and sometimes it's low. It's a lot more stable than it was before minimum wage though. I'm not at all suggesting that minimum wage stabilizes inflation, I think there's very little causal relationship between them.

The minimum wage didn't come along much later than the incorporation of the Federal Reserve, a body whose sole job is to control inflation. Which do you think is more likely to have eased the inflation of the 1800s?

"Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels, close facilities in California and consolidate several business units to cut costs."

The minimum wage didn't come along much later than the incorporation of the Federal Reserve, a body whose sole job is to control inflation. Which do you think is more likely to have eased the inflation of the 1800s?

That's why I said I don't see a causal relationship between the minimum wage and inflation.

Is there some evidence I'm unaware of for such a relationship? I'm always interested in looking at actual data.

its called finality, not spite. They were probably waiting to see if Obamacare would be overturned, now that isn't gonna happen. So, they acted accordingly.

But, they are not waiting to see what happens nor did they know what exectly Romney was going to do with Obamacare, as he promised to keep provisions that were popular, like removal of pre-existing conditions. It's not finality, because it's preemptive.

Sure you are. There are lots of factors for inflation. There are lots of factors for purchasing power. Lots of factors for poverty etc etc etc. If you want to say the minimum wage has failed because its a bad policy you need to account for all the factors involved in povery and inflation.

Ignore Laize; we went at it about a week ago. He literally cannot conceive that these things have multiple effects.

with the amount of money the US spends on student education they should be first in everything... but they are only first in spending and teacher strikes.

American teachers are notoriously overworked and underpaid compared to teachers in more successful systems.

Last edited by Zhangfei; 2012-11-17 at 06:35 AM.

In fact as far as I'm aware the UK is the only european nation that outright bans guns for civilians.

Shotguns I'll give you (provided you're allowed 12 and larger gauges... because I mean... come on...) but not .22s.

People are boycotting companies like this because of what reason?? business??

Newsflash, this is just the beginning and it's going to happen when obamacare forces companies to adapt to this new thing.

You can't be mad for companies wanting to make profits, that's how business works. you vote for obamacare, expect the shitstorm to be happening.

Yes, you can be mad at them. It's our right as citizens to be mad if we want to.

However, you're right, this is just the beginning. There are going to be a lot of companies cutting full-time people down to part time and hiring more part-time people to fill those hours, just so they don't have to pay for the health care.

That's the huge huge problem with ObamaCare, this is a massive massive massive massive loophole that allows companies to screw over the average to below average wage earner. Hourly employees are going to get screwed big time by this if something isn't done about it.

ObamaCare will probably put more people out of health care and fined by the government because of this than there were before.

Greed is such a sad thing, these rich assholes really need to all be thrown into a room and kicked in the nuts repeatedly. I'm so, so glad I don't live in the US, your government and large cooperations are pathetic, neither seem to care about the people and only themselves and bickering at each other to fix a thing.

However, you're right, this is just the beginning. There are going to be a lot of companies cutting full-time people down to part time and hiring more part-time people to fill those hours, just so they don't have to pay for the health care.

You know what happens when a business cuts its compensation? Businesses that can offer better compensation get their workers. You can't cut compensation without negative consequences on your business.

So you are damn right I blame the teachers and those pulling their strings.

Because if we had teachers that were willing to take the way things are, things would be better? Teachers using their right is a bad thing? It doesn't take string pulling to want a better living, it's what everyone wants. I do not know if it's string pulling or just insanity, but blaming those who are responsible for the education of our country when their working conditions are sub par, is absurd. We should pay teachers more, to attract better teachers.